Prospects and Challenges for Tourism Certification in Botswana

This paper traces the development of tourism certification in Botswana and examines prospects and challenges of successful implementation. A precertification study was conducted that led to the resulting Botswana Ecotourism Certification System (BECS), the main document guiding the implementation of tourism certification in the country. The BECS comprises of seven principles and over 240 performance standards; a Best Practices Manual provided detailed criteria to assist in developing the standards. The system uses a three-tiered structure designed to incorporate various tourism operations and levels of sustainability practices. The extensive groundwork done prior to implementation indicated that tourism certification in Botswana has the potential to facilitate sustainable tourism and ecotourism practices, especially in nature-based tourism areas like the Okavango and Chobe regions. The current implementation emphasis is on the accommodations sector, to be expanded in future—26 tourism companies in the precertification programme went on to register for certification since the BECS programme was launched in January 2010. However, early learnings indicate that limited policies and infrastructure inhibit the provision of necessary sustainability oriented services from other supporting sectors. For instance, municipal waste recycling centers and national policies that promote the use of energy saving devices in destination areas are lacking, but are important to certification outcomes. Despite these challenges, the BECS is comprehensive in vision and scope (it addresses both quality and sustainability), and has the hallmarks of a globally outstanding certification system.